wealth inequality

The Corporate Dictatorship Of The Very Rich

November 7, 2020 Nora Fernandez, Global Research. Educate! Philanthropy, Robber Barons, wealth inequality, Wealthy Elites

I heard friends praising Bill Gates' philanthropy a while ago; it still surprises me how people respond to billionaires. The wealthy improve their image financing self-serving projects they present as “serving others” but few question their motives or suspect them of hidden agendas. Most take billionaires at face value and forget how they made their fortunes. Gates is a monopolist who crushed others in the process of building Microsoft. At least, J.D. Rockefeller (the first) made it a bit easier for us, he was blatant enough to call competition a “sin” and built Standard Oil monopoly trying to protect its privileges...

Bolivia: First Election Since US-Backed Coup Creates Divisions

October 17, 2020 Oliver Vargas and Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! 2020 Elections, Bolivia, US coup, wealth inequality

Eleven months after a U.S-backed military coup overthrew the democratically elected Evo Morales and his Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, Bolivians will go to the polls on Sunday, offering them a chance to repudiate the coup government of Jeanine Añez, who has ruled the country since last November. The last year has been a period of constant political struggle, as the self-described “interim government” has fought to impose its rule on a rebellious population, attempting to bring sweeping changes to the Andean state.

Why Do Americans Give Away So Much Control To Corporations?

September 22, 2020 Ralph Nader, Counterpunch. Educate! Corporations, People Power, The Commons, wealth inequality

The American people own most of the wealth – private and public – and most of the information in the country. The top one percent do not. The American people have most of the power in the country. The top one percent do not. These assertions may surprise you, because the top one percent and the giant corporations work overtime to control what you own. This means they do not have to seize what you own so long as their control provides them with both riches and power over you.

The Super-Rich Are Raking In Billions

September 19, 2020 David Cay Johnson, DC Report. Educate! Billionaires, Trump, wealth inequality

If you are in the 99% here is how well you are faring under Trump policies compared to the 1%: for each dollar of increased income that you earned in 2018, each One-Percenter got $88 more income. Huge as that ratio is, it’s small change compared to the super-rich, the 0.01% of Americans with incomes of $10 million and up. That ratio is $1 for you and $2,215 for each super-rich American household. Let’s call them the Platinum-Premiere-Point-Zero-One-Percenters The slice of American income pie going to the poor shrank under Trump by the same amount that it grew for the super-rich. Ponder that.

COVID-19 Is A Great Unequaliser

September 1, 2020 Ben Phillips, InterPress Service. Create! COVID-19, pandemi, Solidarity, wealth inequality

Rome - Any of the first names that the media reported as having Covid were those of the rich and powerful, from movie stars to political leaders. Be ye ever so high, the virus is above thee – or so it seemed. Now we understand that this perception, that came in part because at first only the wealthy and well-connected were getting tested, was misleading. The data is now crystal clear: Covid risk maps on to inequality, and Covid is a great unequaliser – in health, and in wealth. But just as the initial “optimistic” take about Covid – that it would equalize us – got it wrong, so too the now pervasive “pessimistic” take – that the huge costs of the crisis leave us simply unable to act boldly – also gets it wrong.

Truth And Redistribution

September 1, 2020 By Darrick Hamilton & Naomi Zewde, YES Magazine. Create! New Economy, Racism, wealth inequality, Wealth Tax

In a nutshell, our racial dilemma is grounded in a political, economic, and identity-based devaluing of Black lives that has persisted ever since the first enslaved African arrived in Jamestown in 1619. The ensuing history of the United States is built on both racial and economic injustice, two related but distinct problems. These racial and economic injustices, while entrenched, can be addressed. Below are three complementary policies that can make meaningful progress toward undoing centuries of systemic inequities, while prospectively ensuring capital access going forward: (1) Reparations through which the nation acknowledges and redresses its exploitation and extraction of Black resources and personhood; (2) Baby Bonds (publicly funded trust accounts) to establish a birthright to capital; and (3) a wealth tax to break up the concentration of wealth among the capitalist elite and diffuse the political power that goes along with such concentration.

Is Movement Journalism Needed During Reckoning Over Race And Inequality?

August 27, 2020 Tina Vasquez, Nieman Reports. Strategize! LGBTQ, Media, Systemic Racism, wealth inequality, Women

Last summer I found myself at the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge in Jackson, Mississippi. Considered “the epicenter of the civil rights movement,” the well-worn building was once the training site for the Freedom Riders and home to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It seemed a fitting place to launch Freedomways, a journalism fellowship prioritizing women of color and LGBTQ+ people rooted in the American South and committed to doing reporting that advances justice.

Germany Begins A Universal-Basic-Income Trial For Three Years

August 25, 2020 By Adam Payne, Business Insider. Create! Economic Security, Germany, Universal Basic Income, wealth inequality

Germany is about to become the latest country to trial a universal basic income, starting a three-year study of how it affects the economy and recipients' well-being. As part of the study, 120 people will receive €1,200, or about $1,430, each month for three years — an amount just above Germany's poverty line — and researchers will compare their experiences with another group of 1,380 people who will not receive the payments. The study, conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research, has been funded by 140,000 private donations. All participants will be asked to complete questionnaires about their lives, work, and emotional state to see whether a basic income has had a significant impact. Universal basic income is the idea that a government should pay a lump sum of money to each of its citizens, usually once a month, regardless of their income or employment status, effectively replacing means-tested benefits.

Banks Have Made $18 Billion From ‘Paycheck Protection Program’ Processing Fees

August 22, 2020 By Colleen Boyle, In These Times. Educate! Banking, COVID-19, Paycheck Protection Program, wealth inequality

Whether or not a single job or company is saved through the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), lenders will be paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. As of mid-July, PPP lenders, including JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, had racked up $18 billion in fees—more than was allocated to other programs to develop vaccines, provide medical supplies and health services, and feed children. Nearly $130 billion in PPP funds have gone untapped, yet both the HEROES Act passed by the House of Representatives in May and the HEALS Act introduced by the Senate in late July call for the program’s extension while removing requirements that most of its funding be spent on payroll.

Become A Socialist With This CEO Pay Calculator

August 11, 2020 By Joel Cunningham, Life Hacker. Educate! CEO Pay, Socialism, Wages, wealth inequality

You’ve probably heard, anecdotally, that Jeff Bezos earns your salary in some absurdly short amount of time—but do you know exactly how short? Well, now there’s a tech CEO salary calculator from SimpleTexting that can give you the infuriatingly precise answer. You can also use it to figure out how quickly Elon Musk could pay off your mortgage, or that Mark Zuckerberg could pay off the average American’s $35,359 in student debt in 8 1/2 minutes. Does Jeff Bezos make enough to cover your living expenses in more or less time than it would take you to pledge yourself to the fight to burn capitalism to the ground?

Racial And Ethnic Economic Inequality And The COVID-19 Pandemic

August 4, 2020 Thomas Hanna, Democracy Collaborative. Educate! COVID-19, Health disparity, Systemic Racism, wealth inequality

The Democracy Collaborative prepared a report, created for the Healthcare Anchor Network, that looked at how racial and ethnic disparities in the economy are showing up in the COVID-19 pandemic and in the public policy response to the pandemic. The report also covers how the economic effects of the pandemic will likely impact racial and ethnic inequality. Every passing day brings new, painful evidence of how the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color in the United States.

For Egalitarians, A Sudden Sense Of Possibility

August 4, 2020 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. Create! Congress, Corporatism, Corruption, wealth inequality

Something seems to be in the air these days — besides coronavirus. A hopefulness. A boldness. A conviction that we now have a real opportunity for blunting the corporate power that’s done so much to make the United States the world’s most unequal wealthy nation. How can we seize that opportunity? New reports from two veteran national advocacy groups — Public Citizen and Oxfam America — are offering up a gameplan. Public Citizen released its “blueprint for reform” last week on the tenth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, the 2010 legislation that tried to clean out the corporate and financial rot that birthed the Great Recession.

Expropriation Or Bust

July 17, 2020 Colin Jenkins, Hampton Think. Strategize! Capitalism, Neoliberalism, popular power, wealth inequality

Election seasons bring with them a renewed interest in politics. For most that couldn't care less about such concerns, election season becomes, for at least a moment, a time to reflect on deeper issues. For those of us who spend a large portion of our lives thinking, writing, acting, and engaging in these larger-than-life matters, election seasons bring other questions: can we affect change through the electoral system, how effective is voting, and how can we overcome the corporate stranglehold over politics, to name a few. However, beneath all of the political discussions lies an uncomfortable and overwhelming truth: Nearly all of our problems are rooted in the massively unequal ownership of land, wealth, and power that exists among the over-7 billion human beings on earth.

Still More Reasons To Defund Our CEOs

July 13, 2020 Sam Pizzigati, Intrepid Report. Educate! CEO, COVID-19, wealth inequality, Workers Rights and Jobs

Chief executives the nation over have spent this past spring scheming to keep their pockets stuffed while their workers suffer wage cuts, layoffs, and even death by COVID-19. The personal fortunes these execs have pocketed have corrupted our politics and turned our legislatures into dysfunctional chambers that can seldom accomplish anything that doesn’t involve enhancing the financial well-being of already wealthy people. Wealthy execs, in their haste to become ever wealthier, are even privileging their own financial futures over our health. The factories and plants they run are forcing workers to labor without adequate protections or social distancing. The pharmaceutical firms they manage are refusing to share research clues on possible coronavirus cures for fear of losing out on incredibly lucrative patents for vaccines and treatments.

US Racism’s $13 Trillion Legacy Is Just The Start

June 20, 2020 Anna Szymanski, Reuters. Educate! Racial wealth divide, Reparations, Slavery, wealth inequality

New York - Around the time the United States formally abolished slavery in 1865, African Americans owned 0.5% of the United States’ wealth. Today they own under 3%, even though around 13% of the population is defined by the U.S. census as “black or African American.” This isn’t an accident of history – it’s a result of government policies and institutional bias. The interest keeps compounding. The value of income lost during slavery is staggering. The U.S. practice lasted for nearly 250 years – almost equivalent to the time from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 until today. University of Connecticut Professor Thomas Craemer estimates the present value of unpaid wages for just the 89 years after independence to be nearly $20 trillion using a 3% interest rate.

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